his mom and dad abused him, his father would rape him they went to jail of course, i made sure they got put away for that ****. but i have to take care of him (he is my nephew) but the problem is he doesn’t talk AT ALL. he sits and cries. i try to make him feel better, get him more active.. he barely eats. help! what can i do to help this child???
You don’t say how old he is. But you need to have him seen by a good pediatric psychologist or psychiatrist. He may be referred for play therapy.
Meanwhile, get some age-appropriate toys, including some action figures both male and female, animals, paper and crayons or markers, anything you can think of. Put them out where he can use them.
If he doesn’t play with them, you play with them. Comment on everything you are doing. “I’m going to play with the truck. I’m making it go all around the chair. Now I want to play with the horses. Here are two horses. they are going to the pasture to eat…”
If he does play, follow his lead always (unless he does something you don’t allow, like playing with fragile dishes). Comment in a neutral way on what he does. “You got a piece of paper and a marker. You are drawing. It’s green…” If he talks, acknowledger what he says. If he says, “These horses are in a fence,” say, “Oh, they are in the fence.” or something to that effect. Stay involved with him, and follow his lead, don’t make suggestions unless he asks you to.
This is a therapeutic method of playing; of course most of the day you will do things in a normal way.